Major breaking news people: Luke Littler is, in fact, human. Rumours to that effect circulated when the Warrington man lost out on a clean sweep of all the available top titles against Johnny Clayton. They were then endorsed when the phenomenon who is, incredibly, still a teenager, was summarily ejected from the World Grand Prix of Darts in Leicester last week.
Adding another layer to the intrigue to the surprising turn of events was the fact that, yes, it was another Luke who disarmed The Nuke but NOT Humphries of the same forename.
Luke of the Woodhouse pulling off what was a statement result for himself.
Which was all the more noteworthy because it occurred in the most unique tournament in the darts calendar – the World Grand Prix in the arena of the arrowsmiths.
For those not au fait with the world of Tungsten throwing, it is the one event of the season in which players must START and finish on a double. With the real fly in the soup being that a player will not be considered to have scored in any leg until they have connected with a double of some sort.
Hence why you had the situation several times last week whereby you had players throwing up to 12 or 15 darts in a leg without scoring while their opponents are left to take the leg in question at their leisure.
It would be an understatement to say that the format doesn’t suit everyone and, indeed certain players are very open about the fact they’re not fans of the format. Of course there’s a flip side to every coin. In other words, there are those who particularly excel in the quirky format.
Foremost among them Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries. Both previous winners. For both it was a first televised Major success and their most recent encounter was Humphries’ fourth final appearance on the spin.
Incidentally, it’s an event which should be very dear to any Irish aficionados of the arrows action. Firstly because its early and best years were staged here. Initially in New Ross Co Wexford – no, I have no idea how either – before transferring to the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, west Dublin.
Now, whether it had been taken out of the Irish venue before the Mansfield family empire began to crumble or not I am not sure, but at least there’s the bit of history – Fermanagh’s Brendan Dolan hitting the first nine dart finish in the competition – which will always keep a special connection between Ireland and the event.
Mind you, input from the Emerald Isle could and should have been much greater this time around as Willie O’Connor of Limerick must still be must still be wondering how exactly he lost out to Ryan Searle
The man from Capamore is known to come alive in the big televised events and was scintillating in the early stages against Heavy Metal but – in the complete antithesis of the Limerick hurling team his accuracy was missing in action and that ended up letting the Jack Black lookalike off the hook.
You know, there’s something a bit sad about seeing former purveyors of greatness receding somewhat and that was exactly the case as both Michael Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson joined Littler on the idle list a lot earlier than expected.
But again, the other side of that is the likes of Johnny Clayton and Price and the indefatigable James Wade always seem thrive in the annual oddity.
Though not to the same extent as Humphries who, it could be quite easily assumed, targets the Matioli Arena from one season to the next. It certainly looked as though both of them specialised in the unique tournament and firstly Price raced away from the Leeds United fan into a 3-0 lead in sets.
Before the latter mounted an even more astonishing comeback, rattling off four sets in jig time to leave the tempestuous former rugby player resembling a busted flush.
However, annoying and reprehensible as his arrogant ignorance might be, one thing which is beyond question is his obduracy. Thus, there was a certain admirable inevitably about Price recalibrating and levelling matters again at 4-4 in sets.
Ultimately, mind you, like the football team that gives their opponents too much of a head start or the jockey who leaves the horse with too much ground to make up, the mouthy man from the valleys eventually ran out of diesel and Humphries held on to chalk up another title.
To my mind he is undoubtedly the best in the world at the moment but anyone writing Littler off would be very foolish indeed .
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